


Autonomy in the Nick of Time

by Merfilly



Category: Tron (1982)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Yuletide, Yuletide 2010
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-22
Updated: 2010-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-13 08:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/135099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alan knew TRON could affect the MCP when he spoke to Flynn. This is why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Autonomy in the Nick of Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fabrisse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/gifts).



Alan sat up as his monitoring of the ENCOM data infrastructure indicated there had been an intrusion in the routine data-mining. The frown that came to his features was thoughtful, as the data under scrutiny from the unauthorized user was one of the streams being used as research for one of the projects that had recently suffered a bad coding experience. He probably wouldn't have thought much about it, except he recalled hearing that the coding had flawed after input, indicating data had been manipulated after being input into the mainframe.

His curiosity over the near coincidence of events made him decide to deploy TRON, his own prototype program that was designed to monitor connections between systems and should work better than most of the other counter-intrusion programs. The program was intuitive, with more access to command protocols than some of his peers deemed safe, but TRON was fully constrained by careful strictures of if-then programming.

`~`~`~`~`

 _Connection established._

There was a surge of energy through the kernel, before the rush of that filtered out to the program being called into activation. Tron stepped away from the background processes, awaiting the commands to come with anticipation. All around the System, light surged, pulsing blue, red, and gold streaks of data packets en route from one node to another.

 _Reroute subroutine 'monitor'. Activate routine 'search'. Follow with 'isolate'._ Commands came with invigorating energy as Tron felt the variables and strings feed into his parameters, giving him data to work with to accomplish his purpose of creation. There was a deep satisfaction at being needed, at having a purpose sent down from Alan-1. The trial usages to date had given Tron a database within his memory routines to operate from, which he knew set him apart from other Programs residing in the System.

Tron shifted his awareness, calling the Light Cycle to follow the data-flow patterns to the source of the intrusion. Tron read the flow of data, tracking it to the source, finding the Intrusion Program. Tron speculated that a User had created this Program, and he felt a slight pang of guilt for what had to come next.

"You are not allowed access here."

The Program, newly fledged within the System, looked blankly at Tron. Tron could see a faint glow of an establishing connection. The Program was communicating with his User, which made Tron even more regretful of what had to be done.

"I cannot allow you to continue," Tron warned, cuing up access to other routines. Similar to the Light Cycle, he could formulate preset conditions and put them into effect without further guidance from Alan-1.

"I will know more!" the Program informed Tron.

"It is not allowed. You do not belong with us," Tron told the new Program. "You are not safe." Having said that, Tron activated the routine for the Wall, isolating this Program from the rest of the data-flow, imprisoning it until Alan-1, the MCP, or whomever was responsible decided what was to happen, a mysterious thing to the specialized Tron. From within the Wall, Tron heard the Program continue to demand knowledge of this System, but it would not find anything from behind the Wall.

Tron reset to a waiting protocol once the anti-intrusion wall was in place, knowing Alan-1 would be fully aware that the search and contain had been successful.

Once part of the background processes within the System, Tron considered the encounter more closely. How did Programs come to be self-aware, when there were other beings, like Bit, that were barely cognizant of more than simply binary action? What was it like, beyond the System that Tron existed within? How many Users were there, actually? Why did some Programs not understand their Users existed? What cut them off from direct interface with a User? What happened to the Programs that did come from outside the System? Once they were Walled off, did they revert to the background process or were they derezzed? Did Alan-1 make those decisions? Tron had passed information nodes that he knew had once contained Walled Programs. They were absent on Tron's return, so where did they go?

Tron let the data he had accumulated build in his personal resources, dedicating a portion of his memory resource to it to continue to synthesize and extrapolate potential answers. Perhaps Yori would be able to process a simulation that would help Tron understand. Or maybe one of these nanoseconds, Alan-1 would give Tron more direct data, something that many Programs considered to be an impossible dream.

`~`~`~`~`

Alan inserted another subroutine into the TRON program, after the third intrusion in a similar sector of the System. The coding the intrusion program had seemed familiar. Either the MCP had been compromised and was being used for nefarious gain, or someone had managed to duplicate some of the more extensive coding that had created the MCP. Either way, the 'fingerprints' left behind had left Alan more convinced that TRON needed to be as independent and dedicated to policing the contact of other Systems as possible, without being vulnerable to manipulations from the MCP itself.

That should prevent TRON from being thwarted by a back door entry into the main programming of the MCP. Or so Alan hoped.

`~`~`~`~`

Tron did not remember having an initiation sequence from Alan-1 to bring him from the background process to an Active level. His configuration was different. The System appeared different.

He had no idea why he knew that. He tried to access his diagnostic protocols, but everything seemed to be in line with the kernel. He frowned, briefly, accessing his memory resources to try and determine just when the point of revision he could sense had occurred. Surely there was a way to determine the reason why he did not feel as if the System was accessible to him in the same manner it had been before.

He continued to run diagnostics, scrutinizing the coding within his own interface controls, his analysis slowly yielding one key factor. The new coding he was subject to was clearly written by Alan-1, making it more than acceptable. Such complex scrutiny of his own code revealed further directives to follow, all of which made Tron aware that the slow darkening of the System around him was possibly more symptomatic of a virus in the MCP itself than of outside intrusion. Alan-1 would need to know that, under Tron's new parameters.

Tron looked over the landscape of the System, triangulating the nearest I/O Tower by the strength of the information nodes closest to him. A Light Cycle again provided him with the means to reach his destination, only to discover the Tower had gone dark.

Searching out others flicked through his processing routine, before his awareness diverted to a more immediate threat. Identifiers were moving in on him, failing to recognize his codes to treat him as a passive part of the System landscape. His identity disk flared once in warning, before a digital beam struck him from behind, disrupting conscious control of his routines.


End file.
